GNBC says goodbye to the Road To BAL

Beaten for the second time and ranked third in its group, the Gendarmerie Nationale Basket Club, or GNBC, was eliminated without reaching the Elite 16.

The step was too high for the representatives of the Big Island. The GNBC players left the Road To BAL headlong, losing in two days for the second time on the floor of “The Filbert Bayi Olympafrica Center” in Kibaha, Tanzania. After losing their match against the Nairobi City Thunder club with a score of 60-96 on Saturday, the flag bearers of the Big Island bowed heavily again to the Urunani Basket Club club from Burundi on the score from 56-112 (14-29, 12-31, 10-30, 20-22).

Finishing third behind Urunani Basket Club and Nairobi City Thunder of Kenya, GNBC could not go far. The dream of reaching the Elite 16 has become a nightmare. Orphaned by the absence of Elly Randriamampionona, who was unable to line up yesterday and whose motive remains unknown to the Malagasy basketball federation, the GNBC did not weigh heavily against the Urunani Basket Club club , multiple champion of Burundi with more than fifteen national champion titles.

The basketball players of Sisi Wenyewe, nickname of the Burundian club, announced the entry color by dominating in all areas of the game. Advantaged by the size, the Burundians led with a score of 18-8 4 minutes from the end of the game. first quarter, then 20-8 at 3 minutes 30 seconds. The two teams separated with a score of 29-14 for the Burundians at the end of the first quarter.

Exceptional physics

With a delay of 15 points at the start of the second quarter, the gendarmes tried to be incisive during the first two minutes and came back to 18-29.

But very skillful with each shot, the Urunani basketball players quickly widened the gap: 34-18, 35-18, 36-18 and 37-18 after three shots from the Burundians. The score at the break was 60-26.

The third quarter was again dominated by the Urunani Basket Club players who led very far, 90-36.

In the fourth quarter, the gendarmes were unable to do anything in the face of the exceptional mastery and physique of the Burundians. With 6 minutes 35 seconds left in the match, they crossed the 100 point mark. The final score was 112-56 for the players of Urunani Basket Club who took first place (8 points), Nairobi City Thunder, second (7 points), GNBC of Madagascar, third (6 points) , JKT (5 points) and Beau Vallon (4 points).

Mory or Francis Ramanampamonjy was the top scorer for GNBC with 18 points.

“We are not taking this match lightly because GNBC is a good team. However, the goal was to qualify undefeated by finishing strong,” Urunani captain Landry Ndikumana told FIBA.basketball on the FIBA ​​Africa page. The GNBC coach, Lova NavalonaRaharidera, despite our attempt to reach him via WhatsApp call, could not be reached yesterday.

Donné Raherinjatovo